Finally I can get a good rest
HOTSHOT Mark Allen is delighted to have a welcome day off after booking his spot in tomorrow’s World Grand Prix final.
The bleary-eyed world No.5 came through back-to-back midnight finishes against Joe O’connor and Jack Lisowski earlier in the week to reach the semi-finals.
But the Pistol, 36, made light work of Thai potter Noppon Saengkham as he powered into a fourth final of the season with a convincing 6-1 win at Cheltenham’s Centaur last night.
It was the 1,000th match of his professional career with only greats Ronnie O’sullivan, Judd Trump, John Higgins, Stephen Hendry, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson having better win percentages than Antrim ace Allen’s 65.5%.
And now he can sit back and relax as last week’s Masters champion Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy battle it out tonight to face him in the showpiece.
“I’ve had a couple of late nights so it will be nice to just chill out ahead of the final,” admitted the UK champion.
“I felt like I dominated from start to finish. I was a bit frustrated not to see it out a bit better in the last few frames.
“The first five frames I played some good stuff. I lost focus in the last few and I made some silly errors so I need to cut that out.
“I was struggling earlier in the week so I’m buzzing to still be here and in the final.”
Saengkham knocked out multiple world champions Mark Selby, Ronnie O’sullivan and Mark Williams to reach a second semi-final of the season.
But Allen, who has already won the Northern Ireland Open and UK Championship this term, denied him a final spot again.
Breaks of 127, 78, 73 and 66 did the damage.